Joe Winner

Forgotten Cemetery Found in Tampa, Living Residents Now Have To Move

jwinner
September 4th

Share

(Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for Heidi Klum)

After all these years, you come to find out that you’ve been living on a forgotten cemetery. How would you react? The Tampa Bay Times first reported that they believed they found the location of the City’s first black burial ground – Zion Cemetery – underneath a public housing complex initially built for white people.

The resting place had been lost to future development and several graves were unaccounted for, possibly never moved.

The Tampa Housing Authority commissioned ground radar and confirmed the presence of graves.

The burial ground, believed to be the city’s first for African-Americans, was established in 1901 along the 3700 block of Florida Ave.

There could be nearly 800 graves in all. Now, the living residents have to move.

The Housing Authority hopes to rededicate the land as a memorial park.